The future development of a country depends on the education of its people. This has been said so often in recent times especially in developing countries that it has probably become something of a cliché and considered just another smart sounding utterance.
The truth is that as the world changes and smaller nations seek to become more globally competitive this statement becomes truer and more applicable every day.
It would be a grave error then for any of us-leaders and general population alike to let this phrase enter one ear and go out the other but must take it seriously and treat it with the gravity it deserves.
Grenada and other countries with similar economic status are quickly realizing that one of the most pungent hindrances to our development is the area of human resources.
We are coming to terms with the fact that in order to compete with if the more developed countries in the areas of trade and foreign policy we must have experts in various fields at our disposal of the caliber possessed by those countries.
It has therefore been established that the development of our human resources is one of the most important answers to our developmental problems.
Luckily it is a problem that can be solved. Not solved immediately but solved all the same.
True, in Grenada’s case, this government or any other will be hard pressed to address this issue in a comprehensive manner and reasonably expect measurable success by itself. It is an issue that must be tackled from many angle at once and every stakeholder, every sector of society has its role to play in this.
A large percentage of the burden lies on the shoulders of the private sector. To ensure their future success private sector companies need to know that they have a reliable store of skills and training from which to draw the staff and consultants needed to keep their establishment functioning at the competitive level.
Cable & Wireless Grenada Ltd. has taken that responsibility particularly seriously and over the years has invested large sums of money to its annual scholarship program in which it assists successful common entrance students to attend secondary school.
Sixteen years ago, Cable & Wireless, in what has proved to be a visionary act decided to take some of the nation’s young people under its wing and guide them through their secondary education and further than that to take a keen interest in their tertiary academic development in addition to providing job training and guidance counseling throughout the rest of their school lives.
What better way to contribute to the future of a country than in assisting in the development of it human resource stock.
The Cable & Wireless scholarship program though is not of the impersonal type where some form of assistance is given to get the student to school and the recipient is more or less ignored after that.
The Cable & Wireless program is a very involved one in the sense that most of the school needs of the fortunate recipients are taken care of including transportation allowances but more importantly they are not left on their own but are constantly monitored and their progress kept tracked of.
They are provided with counseling which is much needed among our young people today and during the August holidays they are provided with job training to further get them ready for the very competitive world of work when they would have finished school.
Sixteen years and some 122 students later it must be a source of immense satisfaction for the management of cable & Wireless to see the difference the company has made in the lives of so many persons including the family and relatives of the awardees over the years.
This year even another dimension has been added in that some 25 members of Cable & Wireless staff including the Chief Executive Mr. Ian Blanchard have volunteered for a big brother/big sister program which will ensure that each of this year’s students has a personal mentor who will help guide them through the difficult path of growing up and negotiating the challenges of higher education.
It must feel good to see those who have grown into adulthood, move on to pursuing university education and who are now making valuable contributions themselves to the development of their country and to their own future.
Under the theme: Securing the Nation’s Future, Educating our Youth, fourteen new entrants were given an impressive send off at this year’s scholarship award ceremony recently.
They were heartily welcomed into what is described as the Cable & Wireless family and just as those who have gone before them they were assured that no recompense is asked of them other than they dig deep inside of themselves and bring out the very best that they are capable of.
In this way they were told they will be making their contribution towards the development of themselves and their nation.
Following are excerpts of the presentations made at the ceremony.